Lords of RPG

PART ONE

Striker red-lined the gravcar’s engines, trying to put some distance behind them.  The farther they got from the prison-break as quickly as possible, the better. 

Cam was out of breath.  “How’d you guys know to be there?”

Zhukov shrugged.  “We received a curious message that you were in jeopardy, and that we needed to fly a pattern near enough to the prison to react to anything that happened there, but far enough away that no one would question our presence.  At first we thought it might be some sort of ambush or trap, but we couldn’t risk just leaving you to some impossible damaged.”

Cam laughed, almost hysterical from the events of the last 30 minutes, let alone the experience of the past couple of days.  “Captain Marosh.  I think he wanted this guy for some reason.”  Cam points at the newcomer he just broke out of the facility.

“His name is Jacob Billings.  I still have no idea why he wants him...but he used insiders in the police department to frame me up, and get me thrown in the prison...and then insiders in the prison to get me put into Jacob’s cell.  I didn’t have much of a choice except to go along with the frame job, and whatever else he had in store for me.”

Striker called out to no one in particular, “They’ve scrambled a few gravcars and it looks like one grav tank.  I’ve got a fair lead on them.”

Zhukov gave a command.  “Get us back to the Odyssey...doc the grav car, and get us off this planet.”

Corvus was seated next to Jacob Billings.  “What does the Shadow Fleet want with you?  Why would Marosh call in his favor just to break out of jail?”

Jacob looked around at each of them.  “You guys don’t know what’s going on, do you?”  He looked a little shocked, but his words came with no judgement.  “Look, you did break me out of prison, but you also broke me out of a special facility within the prison.  For years, Veridian has been identifying, capturing, and then experimenting on anyone they suspected had psychic powers.  They test your abilities.  Scan your mind.  Torture you a bit to test your limits.  But it ends the same for all of us.  Death and dissection.  You saved my life.  I was definitely up against the end of my visit in their labs.”

Adamn took this all in.  Torture, experimentation, and dissection?  How could the government of Veridian be involved in such a thing?  “But why does Marosh want you?  Why would he go to all that trouble?”

An explosive round exploded to the right of their gravcar.  Striker began evasive maneuvers, and everyone held on tight.  Over the whine of the engine and the sound of gun fire, Jacob yelled out an answer.  “I’m a powerful psychic.  The Shadow Fleet offered me a position in their ranks...they value special talents.  I turned them down...didn’t want to leave me home.  A month later, the government arrested me...and took me to the facility.  I have to think Marosh heard about it, and started planning how to get me out.  I don’t have a home now.  Its a pirate’s life for me at this point.  Its really all I have left.  And...I certainly owe my life to them.”

Two more air burst went off near the lightly armored gravcar, lighting up the interior with bright yellow light. 

Jacob turned to Cam.  “Thanks man...I appreciate what you did for me.  But, now they have video of you using psychic abilities.  If you were already on their radar, now you are 100% in their sights.  If you fall into the hands of the Veridian government, they’ll put a null-chip in your head, poke, prod, and cut on you...and eventually kill and dissect you.  If your about to fall into their grasp, kill yourself.  For my part, they’ll never get me into one of their laboratories again.”

Cam thought about how grim that sounded.  “Wait...they turned off your psychic abilities with a chip?”

Jacob rubbed the back of his head.  “Yeah...they put a fucking chip in my head.  A null-chip.  Its like they flipped a switch...turned me off.  It made me helpless.”

Their gravcar took a glancing shot, causing it to shake uncontrollably, as Striker fought to maintain control.  “Fucking hell!”

Zhukov called out, “How far now?!!

Striker smiled.  “Oh, we’ll make it.  Fuck them.”

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PART TWO

The crew of the Odyssey held on for dear life as Striker came in low over Luminar Nexus, heading straight for their ship.  “Hold on guys...I’ve never tried this before.”

Zhukov grimaced.  “Great.”

Their gravcar had several dark scorch marks on it, and one of their grav-units in the rear was intermittently flickering off, and then back on, over and over again...causing a bumpy ride.  The government gravcars were close behind, with the gravtank lagging behind.  As Striker approached the Odyssey at full speed, he rigged the forward thrust into a hard reverse, while goosing forward thrust on the other side.  The gravcar began to air-slide sideways, and as it approached a position flying in near reverse he directed all thrust forward for hard breaking. 

Everyone was holding on with everything they had, when the gravcar made hard contact with its mounting position, and the mechanical arms latched onto the gravcar.  Before they were even fully docked, Striker was at the rear door...waiting.  With a loud clank, the gravcar was fully docked, and Striker exited onto the bridge of the Odyssey, and ran to the pilot’s seat.

Zhukov began barking out orders.  “Cam, I need you on weapons...Adamn on scans and communication...Corvus….”

Corvus was sliding down the ladder that led downward out of the bridge.  “Engineering!  I’m on it!”

Jacob Billings watched as the crew scrambled for take-off.  The ship shook as a round from the gravtank impacted their hull.

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PART THREE

Now airborn, the Odyssey rocketed into the upper atmosphere.  They had left their pursuing gravcars and the gravtank far behind, but they knew they still had to run the gauntlet of Veridian’s navy.

Adamn called out.  “I’m reading three Sentinel Class Cruisers and about a dozen Warden Interceptors in our vector of escape.  There’s a real buzz on the encrypted military channels...there is no way we’re getting out of here without a serious fight….”

Zhukov finished his sentence.  “...and a lot of luck.  Cam, ready the weapons.”  Over the comm, Zhukov told Corvus, “We’re going to need to shift some power from engines over to weapons once we hit escape velocity and start to pull out of Veridian’s gravity well.”

Corvus answered, “Striker, just tell me when.”

Jacob wasn’t part of the crew, and was not occupied by any tasks.  This allowed him to take everything in, and to observed everything going on.  “Guys, there’s a space-battle going on at 2:00 o’clock on our starboard side."

Adamn focused his scanning on what was happening there.  “Holy shit...a Shadow Fleet Leviathan,  four Twilight Ravagers, and a whole cloud of Blackwind Reavers have engaged Veridian’s Navy.”

Zhukov smiled.  “A distraction...providing us a window.”

Adamn checked his readings.  “Yes...yes!  The Sentinels and Interceptors are leaving our escape vector...we’re going to have a window.”

Zhukov looked at Jacob.  “You must me one fucking powerful psychic for the Shadow Fleet to pull out this many stops.”

Jacob was still rubbing the back of his head.  He simply nodded in response.

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PART FOUR

Adamn provided the data and Striker set the course, and once they were out of the reach of Veridian’s Navy, everyone on board the Odyssey began to breathe a little easier.

A course was set for the general area of Abyssal’s current orbital position, and the system drive was operating a full thrust.  
Striker maintained the helm, but the rest of the crew was able to see to other matters, and get a little rest.  Jacob agreed to allow Adamn to scan for the null-chip, and Adamn did evidence of its presence.  There was a neat little scar on the back of Adamn’s head.  Still pink and a little fresh.  The chip itself was not just below the skin, it was inside Jacob’s skull.  The chip was giving off unique energy pulses that Adamn was unable to full analyze. 

Striker reported that there were about 6 hours out from Abyssal and its moons.

The crew awaited word from Captain Marosh regarding where they could possibly meet up.  And then there was that little retrieval job that Tony Gold had promised them some more information about. 

They would not be able to do repairs to the gravcar until they were planetside, or had time to stop and do a spacewalk.  It wasn’t safe to spacewalk when the system drive’s were at full acceleration.  There was nothing left to do, but do routine ship and equipment repairs, clean and check their gear, and talk about everything that had happened recently.